Dreaming with a Broken Heart
by An-Jelly-Ca
Summary: Because real life isn't a fairy tale. And sometimes there's no such thing as happy endings. Sirius x Marlene. Mentions of James x Lily and Dorcas x Remus. R&R. Chapter 10 Up!
1. when you're dreaming with a broken heart

**A/N Because thirteen stories really aren't enough. Clearly. And because being so swamped with work that you have to stay up until three am every night is a good reason to start a fourteenth one. :p**

**Thanks to all Reviewers!**

**Dedication: to do i need a pen name, my fellow Sirius/Marlene fan. :D**

**Disclaimer: I only own Marlene's siblings together with do i need a pen name.**

"You're not really here," It isn't clear if the man is trying to persuade himself or the woman, perhaps both.

The woman makes a noncommittal noise and idly swings her legs back and forth from her spot perched on his desk.

"You should really clean up in here, you know, I mean, while I love messes as much as the next person, this," She pauses to gesture at the piles of miscellaneous stuff that are stacked throughout the room, "…is taking it a bit too far. Remus must be itching to get in here and clean it up," She grins briefly. A ghost of a grin.

The man frowns in reply.

"Tough crowd," She notes with a brief shake of her head that sends her curls bouncing. "Easy on the frowns, your face can freeze that way, you know. That's what my mum used to say at any rate." She continues with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Only when Milo hit you with a face-freezing charm." He contests, his voice slightly rusty as though with disuse.

She seems encouraged by this reply for some reason. "It's not healthy for you to stay cooped up in here like this." She ventures looking pointedly at him.

"You're not real." He repeats.

"Aren't I?" She asks, raising an eyebrow challengingly.

"No," He says. "But, I wish you were."

"I'm as real as you want me to be." She replies cryptically.

He reaches out to touch her face across the scant few inches that separate them with as shaking hand. His heart hammers in his chest. Just before he makes contact, the scene melts away and suddenly he's sitting up in bed surrounded by darkness with only a painful ache in his chest to serve as a reminder of what would never be.

"Fuck." Sirius exclaims into the oppressive silence of his bedroom. "Fuck."

_When you're dreaming with a broken heart  
The waking up is the hardest part_

**A/N This story will have short length chapters. It will also be a short story. :P Review!**


	2. the waking up is the hardest part you

**A/N Hello, everybody, a new update for you all. :D**

**Thanks to all Reviewers!**

**Dedication: to allidiane23 my first reviewer for this story. :)**

**Disclaimer: I only own Marlene's siblings together with do I need a pen name.**

"_Hi, I'm Marlene," The little girl had turned bodily in her seat in the front row of the top-box to stare at the boy sitting directly behind her. "Marlene Mackenzie McKinnon." _

"_Hi," The boy answered quietly looking somewhat uncertain._

"_What's your name?" She asked curiously when the information didn't seem to be forthcoming._

"_Sirius," He replied. "Sirius Black," He added defiantly, clearly expecting some sort of reaction._

_Marlene looked unimpressed. _

"_You're a fun guy, I can tell. So, why all the frowning? My mum says your face can freeze that way, you know._

"_My mum says that if I don't stop acting like a baby she'll give me something real to cry about." Sirius informed the ginger-haired girl._

_Marlene frowned. "That's not very nice."_

_Sirius shrugged clearly unsure of how to reply._

_The two children lapsed into silence for a few minutes before Marlene spoke again. "Do you have any siblings? I have five brothers. Milo is a lot of fun, Malcolm is kind of bossy but I like him anyway. Marcas always pulls my hair though, and mum gets mad at me for threatening him, but what exactly is the point of learning other languages if you can't threaten your siblings with it? Merric is kind of quiet, and Max pretty much just cries a lot. And I mean a lot. But he's a baby and apparently they're supposed to that." She said all this in largely one breath and Sirius eyed her cautiously as though she were a strange animal of some sort._

"_Wow. Five." He said finally._

"_Yup. So, how many do you have?" She prompted._

"_I have one, Reggie; and that's more than enough for me." Sirius replied._

"_Does he follow you around?" Marlene asked sympathetically clearly thinking of her three younger brothers and ignoring the fact that she often followed her older brothers around and forced them to play with her._

"_For ages and ages." The little boy agreed. _

"_You know what?" The girl asked suddenly._

"_What?" Sirius asked cautiously. _

"_You look like you could use some fun." Marlene pronounced with a vigorous nod that sent several curls bouncing free of their pins. "What do you like to do for fun?" _

_Sirius looked momentarily hesitant before a smirk that would years from then strike fear into the hearts of all his professors (and Remus) spread across his face. "I do like to prank." _

_And thus a new friendship was born._

(Sirius and Marlene kidnapped a referee during halftime. To this day the details of the event remain unclear but the referee was found two years later with purple hair, a deep-seated fear of leprechauns and the number five, upon questioning he did not specify what had happened but confessed to taking bribes. As for Sirius and Marlene? They weren't talking. Because a prankster _never_ reveals his (or her) secrets.)

**A/N Review!**


	3. roll outta bed and down on your knees

**A/N Yes. This chapter is very short, very, very short. Most chapters in this story shall be very short, because they are fragments of what Sirius is thinking after Marlene's death. **

**Thanks to all Reviewers!**

**Dedication: to ariex04 for her lovely review. **

**Disclaimer: (see previous chapters nothing has changed. :P)**

"Water, I'll just get some water." Sirius murmurs to himself after fruitlessly attempting to go back to sleep after his disconcerting dream. He clambers out of bed studiously not looking at that half of the bed-her half.

He doesn't bother to turn on any lights; Sirius has never had a problem with navigating in the dark. Unlike her-the last time she had tried to navigate his flat in the dark she wound up with a broken wrist and a lecture from a less-than-amused Dorcas who had to be dragged from the flat she shares with Remus to heal it. (He wouldn't be woken up to loud crashes anymore. Assuming he could ever manage to sleep anyway).

Fuck, his chest aches. Actually, physically aches as though someone had stabbed him and then twisted the weapon.

He reaches for a glass from the top cabinet (she always hated that he kept them there out of her reach, but he loved to watch her jump up and down and stand on tip toe attempting to reach the glasses all the while lecturing him on insensitivity to the vertically challenged).

He remembers that there is no one to complain about where he keeps things and he complains and he feels cold –numb- the glass slips through his fingers, shattering to the ground like the million broken fragments of his existence.

"Shit." He mumbles fumbling for his wand where he had placed it on the countertop. "Reparo."

He wishes everything were so simple; that the broken pieces of his life could be fixed with a simple spell. What good was magic when it couldn't save her? When all it did was destroy?

_You roll outta bed and down on your knees  
And for a moment you can hardly breathe…_

**A/N Do you know when I write this story? During class. :P I write it in my spiral and then type it up. I wrote this chapter a couple of days ago during Politics, and am now typing it up during Classics. :D**

**Appreciate my lack of attention and the belief my teachers have that I am taking notes. **

**Haha. Review! **


	4. and for a moment you can hardly breathe

**A/N Hello, people, I've returned at last with an update for you all.**

**Thanks to all Reviewers!**

**Dedication: To the Glowing Mischief for her lovely review. :)**

**Disclaimer: Yo no tengo.**

_Dorcas Meadows had gone to bed just two hours earlier tired and exhausted-of course working a double shift at St. Mungo's tended to have that effect on most healers._

_Remus had already gone to bed when she got home, he left dinner for her in the fridge, but she was more interested in going to sleep. She made her way through the apartment towards the bedroom and all but threw herself onto the bed._

_It felt as if she had been sleeping for no more than the blink of an eye when the noises started._

_Dorcas groaned to herself and put her pillow over her face in the hope that if she ignored her unwanted 'visitor' he would go away._

_Remus shifted in bed beside her and she could tell that his eyes were open and that he had identified the source of the noise. _

"_Maybe if we ignore him he'll go away…" Remus whispered hopefully in Dorcas' direction._

"_I know you're there and I will not be ignored," Sirius' head announced from the fireplace._

"_No we're not." Remus contested. _

_The figure in the fireplace rolled his eyes._

"_Marlene needs help." Sirius explained._

_Dorcas removed her pillow from her face just as a loud, 'do not,' echoed from Sirius' end of the floo connection. _

_Sirius ignored his girlfriend. "She tripped over a chair and broke her wrist."_

"_Did not." Marlene's voice repeated petulantly._

"_Can you just come fix her?" Sirius requested ignoring his girlfriend again._

"_I'll be over in a few minutes," Dorcas mumbled._

"_Thanks." Sirius replied as his head disappeared from the fireplace._

"_Good luck," Remus mumbled before rolling over and slipping rapidly back into the throes of sleep._

_Dorcas mumbled an indistinct and vaguely irritated reply as she stumbled out of bed and fumbled for her wand on the bedside table. _

"_I'll be back," She announced before disappearing through the fireplace. "Where is she?" Dorcas demanded upon arriving in the flat and not immediately spotting Marlene._

"_In the kitchen," Sirius replied, leading the way. Marlene was seated on the counter swinging her legs and holding a large cup of coffee in her good hand. She took one look at her best friend's annoyed face and winced. _

"_Marlene Mackenzie McKinnon," Dorcas exclaimed testily._

"_Um, hi?" Marlene inquired. _

_Dorcas rolled her eyes in reply. "What did you do?"_

"_Tripped over a chair," Sirius answered with a snicker._

"_It was so not my fault," Marlene complained. _

"_Really, Marly," Dorcas said with a sigh of exasperation as she lightly gripped her friend's arm with a tut of disapproval. "This is definitely broken." She continued placing her wand tip to the injured limb and murmuring a bone-mending charm. "All fixed."_

_Marlene experimentally flexed the previously injured limb. "All better," she agreed. _

"_As much fun as I am having here, I'm going to go back to bed." Dorcas proclaimed. "And next time consider turning on a light before you go wandering around in the dark." She continued dryly._

_Marlene scowled. Dorcas waved. And Sirius smirked. _

**A/N Review! **


	5. wondering was she really here?

**A/N Hello, everyone. :) I am now officially on Thanksgiving Break for a week, so I will try to get updates out for some of my other stories. **

**Thanks to all Reviewers!**

**Dedication: To DesperateObsession for her lovely review. :)**

**Disclaimer: I own exactly what I owned last chapter. **

"When is the last time you slept, Sirius?" Remus asks gently, in the kind of voice Sirius has always imagined one would use to address a cornered animal or a lost child.

Sirius glances off to the side, eyes darting automatically toward the doors, the windows, wanting nothing more than to escape to the silent refuge of his apartment. Only he didn't-not really-because the walls there are silent and accusing, full of memories of her.

"Yesterday," Sirius replies. And, it's true, well sort of anyway.

"Actually slept," Remus stresses. "Not woke up after an hour or two and spent the rest of the night sitting in the dark," Remus amends.

Sirius refrains from pointing out that he is not just sitting in the dark; he is talking to her, to Marlene, (he has an idea that admitting to visions of his dead girlfriend will get him a one way ticket to the St. Mungo's ward for the mentally impaired).

"…Sirius?"

It occurs to him that Remus had asked him something but he can't for the life of him remember what it was.

His hands are shaking and he can feel a vein twitching just above his eye. His head is pounding and his brain feels too heavy for his skull to the point where it seems in danger of literally falling out. He is so tired, but sleep will not come, it remains just out of reach-taunting him.

"Huh?" He says finally.

Remus' eyebrows draw together in that way they do when he is really worried and about to start off on something that will inevitably involve telling you to do something you don't want to do all the while peppering his lecture with phrases like 'this is for your own good,' and 'I'm just worried about you.'

Only he doesn't. Or doesn't get the chance to at any rate because the door to the apartment opens and a distinctly worn out blonde witch enters. "Hi," She says dully.

"Are you alright?" Remus asks her hesitantly.

"I'm fine." She snaps out. Remus looks slightly pained at her response but he seems to understand. Dorcas looks sorry though. "Shit." She says eloquently. "I'm sorry. It's just-long night, you know?"

Unlike Sirius, who has shut himself up in his apartment after Marlene's death, Dorcas has been pulling extra shifts at St. Mungo's in addition to the time she spends healing injured Order members off the clock.

She has not slept either and appears on edge as though she could burst into tears at any moment.

Remus looks wearily from Dorcas to Sirius and back again taking in their exhausted demeanors and the lines of grief on their faces. "Why don't I make some tea?"

_Wondering was she really here? _  
_Is she standing in my room? _

**A/N Review! :)**


	6. is she standing in my room?

**A/N Hello, all I have finally returned with an update. Unfortunately I have been without a laptop and internet for this summer thus far, which is the cause of my recent lack of updates. **

**This update is brought to you in celebration of Pottermore! Woot!**

**Thanks to all Reviewers!**

**Dedication: to paintthesummer for her lovely review! :)**

**Disclaimer: I own nada!**

_In fifth year Marlene gets it into her head to try roller blading and nothing anyone says dissuades her._

"_You can barely walk on your own two feet." Dorcas points out._

"_She is better on a broom than walking though," James opines. "Maybe she'll be good at this too."_

"_Or maybe she'll break her face, and there goes your Quidditch season." The blonde witch shoots back._

"_Okay, you know what; I'm really going to have to insist that we don't do this." James resolves._

"_Ooh, little Jamesie-wamsie can't take a challenge?" Marlene taunts._

"_That's it." James exclaims with a scowl. "You're going down, McKinnon._

"_You know she's going to break her face, don't you?" Dorcas says with a sigh to Remus._

"_Of course. But hey, what else is new?" The werewolf says sounding resigned. _

"_Come onnnnnnnnnnn, Dorca." Marlene calls to Dorcas from where she is seated on the floor shoving her feet into roller blades._

"_We are going to get in so much trouble for this." Remus comments disparagingly. _

_Marlene, being Marlene, had decided that they should roller blade in the castle…past McGonagall's classroom. Neither Dorcas nor Remus could foresee anything like a positive outcome resulting from this experience. _

"_Help me up," Marlene commands imperiously holding out a hand to Sirius who was already standing perfectly balanced in his own set of roller blades. The grace and poise that seemed to constantly ooze out of every pore of his body was a constant annoyance to Marlene, who could never seem to manage anything like it. _

_Sirius reaches down and pulls her upward in one swift movement. Unfortunately, Marlene was either unprepared or he used too much force because rather than simply landing on her feet she skids forward across the floor. _

"_Stop! Marlene." James exclaims sounding horrified. Marlene was in fact skidding toward a patch of ground where there was still a trip jinx planted from the previous day when they had pranked a group of Slytherins._

_Marlene flails wildly and tries to veer out of the way. She hits the patch of ground covered in the hex and somersaults through the air-_

"_What is going on out here?" Professor McGonagall exclaims opening her office door alerted by the shouts. "What exactly-" The rest of what she was going to say was cut off as Marlene finally lands-on top of the Gryffindor Head of House._

_Dorcas covers her face in her hands, Remus closes his eyes in horror, James and Sirius burst into loud laughter._

"_Get off me immediately, Miss McKinnon." McGonagall exclaims in a scandalized tone. _

"_Uhm, okay." And to Sirius and James' great amusement her attempt to get up results in her losing her balance and colliding with the professor again. _

_After observing a few more failed attempts, they finally skate over to Marlene and each grab hold of one arm and hoist her to her feet. _

"_Detention, all of you." McGonagall announces upon getting to her feet. "And, Miss McKinnon, go get that eye seen to." _

_Marlene is sporting an impressive black eye from where she had hit her face at some point during the fall. _

"_Yes, professor." They all chorus in unison. _

"_Dorcaaaaaaaaaaaa, can you please fix my face?" Marlene requests once McGonagall had retreated back into her office. _

_Sirius made a rude comment about how that was beyond Dorcas' skill set as it would require much more than a simple healing spell to make her face presentable, which results in Marlene giving him a matching black eye. _

"_Jerk." Marlene scowls with mostly fake anger._

"_You hit hard." Sirius complains._

"_You two are such idiots." Dorcas says with more fondness than anger, as she sets about healing both of their bruises._

"_You should really consider taking up healing, you can make a fulltime career out of it just seeing to Marlene." James comments a few minutes later as they head down the hallway back to their dorm room. _

**A/N I'm not fully happy with how this turned out but review anyway. Next chapter will be up soon. **


	7. No she's not cause she's gone gone gone

**A/N WOOT! I am updating in a timely fashion. Be amazed!**

**Thanks to all Reviewers!**

**Dedication: To doodlechick12 my newest reader!**

**Disclaimer: I own nada. **

"I know it's tough, mate, but you're only depressing yourself with this," James Potter speaks bracingly.

Sirius stares at him blankly.

"Drink your tea," James says with a sigh. "And for the love of Merlin, eat something," He punctuates his words by shoving a bag of salt and vinegar potato chips toward Sirius (they were the only food he could find in the flat).

Sirius blinks. "She loved those; I never really cared for them," He says finally.

"Why don't you come and stay with Lily and I for a little while?" James suggests taking in the barren cupboards, lack of lights, and overall disheveled and woebegone state of the flat.

"I'm okay." Sirius says unconvincingly.

"You're torturing yourself," James replies in a flat tone. "You need to get out of here."

"No. I need to stay here. I need to be with her." His voice cracks and he looks away, out the window.

"She's gone, Padfoot." James says quietly. "Drowning in memories won't bring her back, it will only drive you insane."

Sirius doesn't respond.

"Just come stay with us for a day or two, please, a change of scenery will do you a world of good." James pauses and then plays his trump card. "…And Harry misses his godfather."

"That was low, even for you, Potter." Sirius scowls.

"Will you come?" James implores.

"…Fine." Sirius knows he'll regret this.

"And before you come back here, I am taking you grocery shopping. You just wait until Lily sees you, the first thing she's going to do is stuff you full of food." James says brightly.

"She always worried about feeding people." Sirius notes.

It takes James a minute to realize that Sirius is not referring to Lily, but rather to Marlene who had a love of all things culinary which she had inherited from her maternal grandmother.

He opens his mouth to speak, uncertain of what to say, but feeling that he should say something.

"Don't bother," Sirius says suddenly. "Nothing you say will make a difference."

James winces. He doesn't know what to do. He can't imagine how it would feel to lose Lily, and he doesn't know what to tell his best friend now that he has lost the one woman he ever loved, his oldest friend.

"Marlene wouldn't want this for you," He says quietly.

"No one knows what she would have wanted, she's dead." Sirius answers harshly.

James sighs but doesn't press the issue. "Are you ready to go?"

_No she's not, 'cause she's gone, gone, gone, gone, gone..._

**A/N Review, please! I will have the next chapter out ASAP.**


	8. when you're dreaming with a broken

**A/N: First of all I would like to thank all of you for your wonderful reviews. I am duly apologetic for the long wait you have had to endure. As this story is actually pretty near its conclusion, I am moving it up to number one updating priority, and will attempt to update it once a week until it is completed. **

**Thanks to All Reviewers!**

**Dedication: To KingKahn for their review! :) **

**Disclaimer: I own nada. **

"_Chip?" Marlene aske,d rustling the bag of Salt and Vinegar chips temptingly under Sirius' nose._

_The unquestionably aristocratic looking nose in question wrinkled up in distaste. "You know I don't like those," He proclaimed pushing the bag away. _

_Marlene shrugged prosaically, before reaching into the bag for a handful of chips. "I live in hope," the sixteen year old murmured, as though she was thinking of something more than the odds of convincing her friend to enjoy her favorite snack._

"_You've got a better chance of Remus skiving off class than me becoming a fan of those chips." Sirius said reaching for a pack of every flavored beans that lay on the table._

_Marlene startled slightly having been off in her own thoughts. "Yes, yes of course," She agreed quietly. _

_Sirius made a face abruptly. "Ugh, I think that one was black licorice," He explained in between dramatic gulps of water._

_Marlene lifted her eyebrows incredulously at her best friend, "With flavors like vomit, and acid, you're complaining about black licorice?" _

"_First of all, acid tastes about the same as those chips you're imbibing, and second of all Black Licorice is basically the devil, there is just no redeeming quality about the flavor," Sirius explained in a matter of fact tone. _

_Marlene shook her head at him but forbore commenting, and reached for a fizzing whizbee instead. _

"_Are you sure you should be eating that?" Sirius nodded toward the sherbet ball. _

"_Last time was totally just a fluke, no one is allergic to Fizzing Whizbees," Marlene protested. _

_The last time Marlene had imbibed one of the sherbet balls she had ended up stuck to the ceiling by her hair for over twenty-four hours, she was still convinced that someone, (cough, Sirius, cough) had been responsible for it as opposed to the candy, but she had been unable to prove anything thus far. _

"_Fine, proceed at your own risk," Sirius said with a shrug. _

_And, proceed, Marlene did…_

_Right up to the ceiling, held up by the force of a gingery-haired afro, (don't ever underestimate the power of a gingery-haired afro)._

"_You were saying?" Sirius inquired, calmly biting the head off a chocolate frog._

"_Mrmph. Mmph. Mehg." Marlene replied with a scowl._

"_I think someone could do with some cheering up…" Sirius said with a grin, procuring a large feather from behind his back. _

"_I will kill you, Sirius Black," Marlene hissed as Sirius advanced toward her very ticklish bare feet with his feather. _

"_Why, yes, Mars, I would love to introduce my feather to your feet," Sirius continued blithely on, as though he had not heard her threats. _

_Needless to say, when Marlene finally got off the ceiling, Sirius found himself with sudden, pressing engagements that kept him away from her house for several days._

**A/N: Review! I've already written the next chapter, so I will post it within the next few days.**


	9. heart the giving up is the hardest part

**A/N Hey, everyone! I have returned with the next chapter.**

**Thanks to all Reviewers!**

**Disclaimer: I own nada. **

"Pa'foot," Harry calls, patting his godfather's foot with one chubby, baby hand. "Mar-mar?" He asks questioningly, using his nickname for his godmother.

Sirius looks down at the toddler and attempts to muster a smile or something, but the attempt must have been pretty pathetic, because Lily quickly swoops over and gathers Harry up.

"I think it's time for someone to go to sleep," she murmurs, not making eye contact with Sirius.

James wordlessly squeezes his best friend's shoulder in support. "Sorry about that, mate." He says after a minute. "Harry doesn't understand what's going on."

"Neither do I." Sirius whispers.

"Talked to Dorcas lately?" James inquires cautiously.

"Not really." Sirius replies. "I saw her the other day when I was with Remus. She had just gotten off work."

"I hear she works a lot lately," James presses.

"I guess she does, maybe," Sirius shrugs, staring off into the distance. "I don't really keep tabs on her."

"Yeah," James replies awkwardly. "I guess not."

"Listen, Prongs, I'm kind of tired, I think I'm going to turn in now," Sirius says already rising to head toward the guest bedroom.

"Yes, of course," James agrees, fixing his friend's back with a worried stare as he leaves the room.

Lily returns from putting Harry to bed a few minutes after that to find James alone in the living room.

"Where did Sirius go?" She asks, a worry line appearing between her eyebrows.

"To bed," James sighs. "I worry about him."

"I know you do," Lily rests her head on her husband's shoulder, in a gesture of support.

"I don't know what to tell him, I don't know what I would do if our positions were reversed, or rather I like to pretend that I don't, because I know that if I had to live a single day without you, I wouldn't want to go on, and that isn't exactly the kind of upbeat insight I think Sirius needs to hear right now."

"No, definitely not," Lily agrees.

"It's like, he's been Sirius and Marlene for so long, he doesn't know how to just be Sirius anymore, and that makes it harder than anything else. Marlene was, is, a part of him, and always will be. But he needs to pick up the pieces of his life somewhere, and move on, without her, the alternative, well…" James pauses. "I don't really want to contemplate that."

_When you're dreaming with a broken heart,  
The giving up is the hardest part  
_

**A/N Review!**


	10. she takes you in with her crying eyes

**A/N Hi, everyone, as usual I apologize for the massive delays.**

**Thanks to all Reviewers!**

**Dedication: to all my readers who have stuck with this story so far despite how long I take to update.**

**Disclaimer: All characters are the property of the lovely J.K. Rowling.**

"_Do you ever think about dying?" Marlene asked as she and Sirius sat doing homework, late one night during fifth year. O.W.L.S. were approaching and even the most ardent of slackers were buckling down. They had not seen Remus in days; he had disappeared in the library after shoving study schedule toward each of them and threatening them with certain death if they interrupted him. _

"_Not if I can avoid it." Sirius replied flippantly._

"_Sometimes I think that I don't have very long to live." Marlene said quietly. "And I wonder what dying is like, I wonder if it will be quick, if it will hurt-"_

"_Stop it, Mars." Sirius cut in._

_Marlene looked away. "Everyone has to die sometime." She said quietly._

"_Not yet, Marlene." Sirius insisted. "And if we go down, we go down together, and we go down fighting, agreed?" _

_A grim smile flickered across the young witch's face. "Agreed." _

"_Now, unless you actually want to die, you should probably at least act like you're studying." Sirius said nodding his head pointedly toward Lily Evans who was glaring openly at them for daring to speak. _

_Marlene made a show of shuffling around her papers, and noisily opened her heavy Arithmancy tome. Lily glared once more and returned to her Potions notes. _

_Sirius stifled laughter. "Nice one, Mars." _

"_I like to live dangerously." She said with a wink. _

"_Just not too dangerously, okay?" Sirius requested with sudden solemnity. _

"_Caution is my middle name!" Marlene exclaimed. _

"_I'm pretty sure your middle name is Mackenzie." _

"_My point stands." Marlene insisted. "Now how about you put that big brain of yours to work helping me with this problem…" She shoved the heavy textbook toward Sirius abruptly changing the subject. _

_He eyed her speculatively, but obligingly scanned the problem. Arithmancy had always been one of his strongest subjects, although it wasn't what he would call fun. Marlene found it horribly dull and made little effort to pay attention. She still managed to get fairly good grades, but he didn't imagine she would want to continue with it past fifth year. Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures were more her style. _

_After another hour of work, Marlene pushed her books away with a huff. "This is torture." _

"_Time for a jailbreak?" Sirius asked with a raised eyebrow._

"_Naturally." The ginger haired witch agreed._

_They made their way to Hogsmeade and spent the better part of the evening downing firewhiskey at the Hog's Head. Remus would be furious at them if he found out, and they would probably get detention for the rest of the year if McGonagall caught them. They were also seriously wasting needed study time. But, in that moment none of that mattered and they spent their time planning vaguely impossible sounding pranks and sitting closer than friends probably should._

(Marlene kept her promise to go down fighting, but she failed to bring Sirius along. And though he never admits it to himself, and he knows she couldn't help it, he's always a little bit angry at her for that.)

**A/N I am sorry for the ridiculous delays everyone. The next three chapters are complete, so I will update as soon as I get reviews.**


End file.
